Editor’s Note: This information is taken from open court records and is a matter of public record. The listings are complete. The newspaper, as a matter of fairness, will not honor requests to omit any listing. For information on this column or questions, call 236-5178, ext. 213.

District Court

These sentences were recorded in April in the Carroll County District Court, Hillsville. Sentences may be appealed:

Dozens of locals who are feeling the heavy blow of the economy have been sleeping overnight on Mondays in the cold air at the front steps of Rooftop of Virginia, hoping to be one of 10 clients each week to acquire emergency assistance funds to pay rent, water or electric bills or purchase fuel to heat their home.

On Monday mornings, before the doors open at 8 a.m., 60 people who have fallen below the poverty line are already waiting outside of Rooftop's office on North Main Street in downtown Galax.

INDEPENDENCE — A 22-year-old man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a death caused by a drug overdose and will spend the next eight years in prison.

Daniel Laymond Ferguson, of 340 Grayson Street in Fries, pleaded guilty Friday morning in Grayson County Circuit Court to one count of second-degree murder and one count of distributing a Schedule II drug to a minor.

The charges stemmed from the November 2008 death of Zachary Dale Towler, 17, of 328 Grayson Street in Fries.